strokestown park house and famine museum

At the end of Ireland's widest main street - laid out by the 2nd Lord Hartland as the widest street in Europe - a Georgian Gothic arch leads to Strokestown Park House, seat of the Pakenham Mahon family from 1600 to 1979.
The house was designed for Thomas Mahon in the 1730s by the German architect Richard Castle and incorporates parts of an earlier tower house. The central block is the residential part of the house. The north wing houses Ireland's last galleried kitchen (a gallery in the kitchen allowed the lady of the house to observe the culinary activity without ever having to feel a part of it) and the south wing is the elaborate vaulted stable described by one observer as 'an equine cathedral'.
The house is now owned and managed by Westward Garage Ltd. the company which bought the house intact with its contents in 1979. Complementing the formal reception rooms downstairs are the more intimate children's rooms upstairs; a bedroom, school-room, and fully equipped nursery. In the study a selection of documents dealing with the potato famine.